Musicians

What distinguishes Arion Baroque Orchestra's musicians from other orchestras is the strong spirit of collaboration that lives among them. Indeed, the Orchestra, having no one conductor, has built a very dinstinct bond over the years allowing the musicians to work together with the guest conductor in a spirit of candid collaboration rather than respecting any severe hierarchy.

It is the key to Arion's energetic and inspired performances that delight concert-goers!

Kate Bennett Haynes studied modern cello with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory and baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden at the Royal Dutch Conservatory in the Hague, after completing a bachelor’s degree in Scandinavian studies at Harvard College.

Born in Montreal, Stéphanie Bozzini has been a member of the Quatuor Bozzini (Opus Prize, Discovery of the year 2000-2001, Quebec Music Council) since its beginnings, a young emerging group that regularly performs in Canada, the United States, and Europe.  Her curiosity and interest in all musical styles, from music played on period instruments to improvisational music, makes her a most versatile violist.

Born in the United States, the violinist and violist Jacques-André Houle has been active on the Montreal music scene for 20 years.  He is a founding member of the Franz Joseph Quartet, a period instrument group and has recorded three CDs with them under the ATMA Classique record label.

Matthew Jennejohn presently leads a very active career as a solo musician with both chamber music groups and orchestras.  One can hear him play the baroque oboe, the cornett, or the beak flute with several prominent ensembles in North America, such as the Arion Ensemble,  Tafelmusik, La Bande Montréal Baroque, Les Boréades, Les Voix Humaines, Constantinople, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Toronto Consort and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.

Hank Knox studied harpsichord with John Grew at McGill University in Montreal and with Kenneth Gilbert in Paris. He has given numerous harpsichord recitals, and is a founding member of Ensemble Arion, with whom he has toured Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, South America and Mexico. 

Tanya LaPerrière began studying violin at the age of 6 with Mr. Claude Leboeuf, who remained her teacher for nearly 10 years.  It was in the small Charles-Le Moyne de Saint-Hubert School in Québec, following the methods of the reputable instructor Shinichi Suzuki, that she developped her violin skills, and above all her philosophy for playing: play in order to make us better human beings. 

Sophie Larivière is a member of Ensemble Caprice and has been its Artistic Co-Director since 1997. In this capacity, she helps to enrich the creative direction of the ensemble in its quest for musical discoveries that blend virtuosity with expressivity. 

Scott Metcalfe is a a violinist and conductor whose career has taken him all over North America and Europe. He is the music director of Blue Heron, a vocal ensemble based in Boston which specialises in music between 1400 and 1600 and has been acclaimed by the Boston Globe as “one of the Boston music community’s indispensables.” Blue Heron presents a series of concerts at its home base in Cambridge, Massachusetts, performs regularly throughout New England and in New York City, and has released two CDs, both of which have been greeted with critical praise in North America and Europe.

Washington McClain is a former member of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and current principal oboist of Ensemble Arion (Montreal) and Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra (Cleveland, Ohio).  A Louisiana native, Washington presently resides in Windsor, Canada.  Mr. McClain received his bachelor's degree in musicology from Northeast Louisiana University.  He then completed a master's degree in oboe at Northwestern University in Illinois.  Mr. McClain was a member of several symphonic orchestras in the Chicago area, including the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and was also a featured solosit on tours traveling throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

After completing her studies in modern violin, Ellie Nimeroski was drawn to early music and to the remarkable voice of the baroque violin.  Without abandoning the modern violin, she began her career in early music with Arion in 2004.

A founding member of the Arion Ensemble, Ms. Rémillard has also performed with several other groups, including l'Orchestre de la Chapelle Royale de Paris, Il Complesso Barocco d'Amsterdam, Ars Musica, The American Baroque Ensemble, l'Ensemble Stradivaria de Nantes and the Belgian ensemble Anima Aeterna.

Sari Tsuji holds degrees in violin and early music performance from McGill University where she studied with Thomas Williams, Emlyn Ngai, Hélène Plouffe, Hank Knox, and Betsy MacMillan. She is a founding member of Seasons Baroque, a Fredericton-based chamber music ensemble in which she also plays the bass viol. 

An inquisitive and versatile musician, Mathieu Lussier strives with dynanism and passion to make the baroque bassoon known as a solo instrument throughout North America and Europe.  He performs as bassoonist, soloist, and/or conductor with groups such as Arion (Montreal), Les Violons du Roy (Quebec), the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto) and the Orchestra de la Mission Saint-Charles (Lamèque).  Since 2007, he has also been the artistic director of the International Festival of Baroque Music in Lamèque.  Dedicating a large portion of his time to practicing chamber music, he is a member of the Pentaèdre Ensemble of Montreal, the Caliban Quartet of Bassoonists of Toronto, as well as the Musica Franca ensemble.

Baroque cellist Amanda Keesmaat, a graduate of Western and McGill universities, records and performs regularly with Les Voix Baroques, Arion Baroque Orchestra, La Nef, Clavecin en Concert, Les Idées Heureuses, Theatre of Early Music and Skye Consort.  A vibrant presence in the Montreal early music community for almost 15 years, Amanda has also toured across Canada, the United States and South America.

A highly sought-after contrabassist and chamberist, Nicolas Lessard devotes himself chiefly to small groups with diverse musical styles.  Very active on the Montreal baroque scene, one can hear him on the contrabass or violin in concerts, recordings, and tours as a part of the Ensemble Arion, les Idées Heureuses, les Boréades, Caprice…etc.

The entrance of Nicole Trotier in the professional music world happened well before the end of her studies, as she was an supernumerary member of the Quebec Symphonic Orchestra for several years, then a permanent member from 1984-1992.  Also in 1984, she joined the Ensemble Nouvelle-France and became fascinated by the baroque violin.  Thus, in 1986, she received a scholarship from the Canada Council for the Arts that allowed her to go to London to study this instrument under Ingrid Seifert.  Since then, she has had the opportunity to perform as a member of several groups such as Tafelmusik of Toronto, Arion, Les Nations, the Studio de Musique Ancienne of Montreal, the International Festival of Early Music of Lamèque, Les Boréades, as well as the Klang & Raum Musikfestival im Kloster Irsee (Germany).

Débutant ses études en violon à l’âge de trois ans, Chloe Meyers poursuivit sa formation à l’Université Victoria puis à l’Université McGill, où elle découvrit le violon baroque.
Chloe Meyers joue aujourd’hui un rôle majeur sur la scène de la musique baroque montréalaise et nord-américaine. Elle est en effet violon solo pour le Pacific Baroque, un des plus prestigieux orchestres baroque de Vancouver, ainsi que pour Le Nouvel Opéra et Tempo Rubato.

Originally from Québec, Pierre-Antoine Tremblay pursues a career of horn player specialized in early music practice. His artistic activities over the past two years have lead him to more than twenty countries across Europe, Asia and both North and South America. He recently played with period-instruments ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Netherlands), Freiburger Barockorchester (Germany), Orchestre des Champs-Élysées (France), Capella Cracoviensis (Poland), il Gardellino (Belgium), Die Kölner Akademie (Germany), Arion Baroque Orchestra and Tafelmusik (Canada).

Accomplished performer on the lute and theorbo, Sylvain Bergeron is in high demand on the North American music scene. He gives nearly one hundred concerts each season in and alongside many internationally renowned soloists. Among these include Emma Kirkby, James Bowman, Jordi Savall, David Daniels, Magdalena Kozena, Michael Chance, Charles Daniels, Daniel Taylor, Karina Gauvin, Suzie LeBlanc, Vivica Genaux, Matthew White, Agnes Anne Azema and Agnes Melon. He works regularly with Les Violons du Roy, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Les Idées Heureuses, Les Boréades, Les Voix Humaines, Les Voix Baroques, Apollo's Fire, Clavecin en concert, etc.

The French Canadian violinist Guylaine Grégoire is renowned as a multi talented musician and a devoted artist in the community. Guylaine studied violin at Mcgill university with Mauricio Fuks, achieving a Bachelor with high distinction, and then completed a Masters at the University of Montreal. In 1990 Guylaine spent one year as an assistant teacher at the renowned Yehudi Menuhin School of Music in the United Kingdom.

Après l’obtention du DEM à Poitiers et d’un premier prix à Versailles dans la classe de Jean-Claude Montac, François est admis au CNSMD de Lyon dans la classe de Laurent Lefèvre, Julien Hardy, philippe Hanon et Laurent Lechenadec.
Pendant son cursus, François s’initie au basson baroque. Après avoir obtenu son prix, il intègre pendant un an le quintette à vent « le concert impromptu ».

Anna Marsh owns five bassoons and likes to play them. She appears regularly with Arion Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Tempesta di Mare, Opera Atelier, The National Gallery of Art, Seattle Baroque,  Opera Lafayette, Ensemble Caprice, Washington Bach Consort and Clarion Music Society. She has also appeared with The National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Wall Street, Ensemble Voltaire, Apollo's Fire, Foundling, Americantiga, Chicago Opera Theater, the Hollywood Bowl, Banff Centre for the Arts, Musica nel Chiostro, Publick Musick, the Bloomington Early Music Festival, Boston and Berkley Fringe Festivals, Sante Fe Pro Musica, Aradia Ensemble, Indianapolis Museum of Art and many others.

Touring extensively as a recitalist, orchestral and chamber player throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, Asako has performed internationally, both as a solo artist and as part of ensembles such as the Wallfisch Band (UK), COLLEGIUM MUSICUM Den Haag (Netherlands), Arion Baroque Orchestra (Canada), The Bach Orchestra of the Netherlands.

Named Breakthrough Artist of the Year (2012 Opus Awards), Vincent Lauzer graduated from McGill University, where he studied with Matthias Maute. He has won several first prizes in regional and provincial competitions including 1st prize in the Stepping Stone 2012 of the Canada Music Competition. In 2010, he won 1st prize in the first Mathieu-Duguay Early Music Competition held at the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival. In 2009, he won 1st Prize and the Audience Appreciation Prize in the 3rd Montreal International Recorder Competition.